Floor treating machine



Nov. 8, 1955 w. PETERSEN 2,722,700

FLOOR TREATING MACHINE Filed June 8, 1949 jade/0351f: Mia/w zifkawl/a United States Patent Ofiice 2,722,700 Patented Nov. 8, 1955 FLOOR TREATING MACHINE William L. Petersen, West New York, N. J., assignor to Clarke Sanding Machine Company, Muskegon, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application June 8, 1949, Serial No. 97,848

1 Claim. (Cl. 15-49) This invention relates to power driven floor treating machines and has particular reference to a novel and improved rotary mounting structure to carry the rotor of the machine, which in the present disclosure includes a rug scrubbing brush.

In rug scrubbing and other floor treating machines it has been the prior practice to provide a frame to carry the motor, with a downwardly extending shaft or gear housing carrying the rotor and brush, and devices to raise, lower or tilt the rotor and brush to regulate the contact between the brush and the floor. According to the present teachings, it is proposed to depart from this practice by providing a machine having a frame, driving motor and gear reduction unit mounted on a plurality of casters so that it is supported at a predetermined position above the floor, with a free floating rotor and brush; driven by the machine but arranged for vertical sliding movement on a rotatable rotor pilot so that the brush is held on the rug or floor surface by the weight of the rotor and brush alone. This has been found to be of considerable advantage in the rug scrubbing machines, for example, where it provides for eflicient cleansing of the rug surface and develops adequate lather, yet functions with a minimum of wear on the nap of the rug and accomplishes unusually long life for the bristles of the brush. in addition, it avoids the necessity of any manual adjustments of the device to suit it to operation on rugs having nap of greater or lesser thickness than average. I

It is therefore a specific object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved revolving rotor pilot having a connection adapted to transmit rotary motion to the rotor and brush, yet to permit free floating vertical movement of the rotor and brush within predetermined limits.

A further object of the invention resides in the provision of a rotor pilot having a sliding connection for a free floating rotor as indicated above, wherein the individual mechanical parts are so designed that they are simple to assemble, yet unusually sturdy and rugged and not apt to be damaged by rough usage or abuse. This is of prime importance in a machine of the character here under discussion, since these machines are widely used in the rental trade, in which they are not only operated by persons entirely unfamiliar with their structure, but are repeatedly subjected to almost every conceivable form of misuse.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a mounting for a free floating rotor wherein all parts are relatively simple and regular in contour, having no parts requiring milling or broaching operations in their manufacture, so that the unit may be economically produced by mass production methods and conveniently manufactured without special machine tool equipment.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a rotatable rotor pilot for a free floating floor treating machine rotor having a novel structure wherein floating movement of the rotor is accomplished without perceptible tendency of binding, yet wherein the individual parts may be quickly and easily disassembled to permit removal or replacement of the rotor or its brush if required.

These and other incidental objects, which will appear hereinafter, are accomplished according to the present teachings by the utilization of a mechanism as illustrated in the single figure of drawings herein, which illustrates a present preferred embodiment of these teachings.

The machine frame, generally indicated by the ordinal 10, is preferably of cast metal construction, and is shown as being provided with outstanding brackets 11, each of which carries a caster 12 threaded into the bracket with an adjustable shank 13 locked by a nut 14. As shown, anti-friction bearings 15 are provided to permit free movement of the casters. The frame is preferably provided with a handle 16, the lower end of which terminates in a yoke 17 whose opposite ends are pivoted to bosses 19, by pivot studs 20. The bosses 19 as shown are an integral part of a motor housnig 21 which contains a driving motor 18 and reduction gearing to drive the vertical stud shaft 22 on which the brush driving v pinion 23 is mounted.

The principal rotary parts of the mechanism are supported by a central, downwardly extending stud 24 having an enlarged flange 25 at its upper end fixedly secured into the frame 10 by a plurality of machine screws 26. The stud 24 is stationary and carries upper and lower ball bearings 27 and 28 at its upper and lower ends. The lower bearing 28 is directly secured by a lower cap 29 secured to the end of the stud 24 by a machine screw 30. The ball bearings 27 and 28 are spaced apart by opposite counterbores in the sleeve 32 so that they serve as a mounting for a driven spur gear 31 mounted at the levelof the bearings 27. Thus the sleeve 32 acts as a relatively long tubular rotor pilot. The extension sleeve 32 extends downwardly from the hub portion 33 of the gear 31 to a point beyond the bearing 28. The lower end of the sleeve 32 is closed by an internal plug portion 34 of a bottom cap 35, which is secured in the lower end of the sleeve pilot 32 by equally spaced pins in the form of machine screws 36, each of which extends through an outwardly extending flange 37 on the bottom cap 35. These screws are received in threaded apertures in the hub flange 33 of the gear 31.

The brush 38 includes bristles 4-1 set in a circular aluminum rotor 42 having a rotor hub 43 in which a bronze bearing bushing 44 is carried. The bushing 44 is loosely fitted on the outer cylindrical surface of the pilot sleeve 32 of the rotor pilot, so that it will slide freely up or down, but the length of the central bore through the bushing 44 is sufficient to prevent any possibility of binding between the parts. The rotor hub 43 and bushing 44 have drilled apertures 46 at points corresponding to the spacing of the machine screws 35, so that the machine screws extend through the apertures in the rotor hub 43 and bushing flange 4-5, so that when the gear 31 is driven by the pinion 23, the rotary motion thereof is transmitted to the rotor and brush; yet the rotor and brush are left free ET float upwardly or downwardly on the pilot sieeve 32 and to assume an intermediate position between the flanges 37 and 33. Its actual operating position is determined primarily by the thickness of the nap on which the device is used and, of course, upon the length of the bristles 41 and the adjustment of the caster studs 13.

A downwardly depending skirt portion 47 is ordinarily provided so that. when liquid soap or shampoo is introduced into the brush through a soap duct (not shown) the lather developed by the brush will be confined to the area under the machine, and while this skirt may be various ma1erial5,,it is normally of yieldable; resilient construction; rubber being preferable for the purpose.

It is to be noted in connection with the structure here disclosed that the specific arrangement of mounting,

employing; a. fixed stud to. carry the. friction bearings. and.

a sleeve-like rotor pilot to. drive the principal rotary parts, provides. a unit adequately sealed against entrance of dust, grit or foreign matter; witha cup around the bearingsin which a substantial body of lubricant may be held without danger of. leakage. onto the work surface; yet; results in a structure that is mechanically simple and easily accessible for inspection, replacement or repair of the bearings. The floating connection between the driving mechanism and the rotor (which is shown, in this instance as a scmbbingbrush) isfree to float vertically and to adjust itself, imposition with respect to the surface on which the machine is working, yet this, connection is accomplished without conventional types. of keyways, splines or slides which ordinarily can be produced only by relatively expensive milling and breaching operations and even then fail to give satisfactory performance in, machines subjected to the. misuse encountered inthe rental trade. Thespecific form of the sliding connection between the parts is,.therefore, of advantage from a manufacturing andmaintenance standpoint as well as by reason of the fact that replacement or interchanging of the rotor and brushes is easily accomplishedby merely loosening the screws 36 toremove the lower cap. The construction of the. rotor pilot and rotor are thus such that free floating movement of the brush is accomplished. without perceptible tendency to bind, and, the parts are, of such shape and formation that their action is not impeded. by the presence of water, soap residue, and other dirt, grit and foreign matter that tends to accumulate in. any mechanism of this nature.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is:

In a fioor treating machine including a frame, a driving motor and a rotor having floor treating means thereon, a rotor mounting comprising a fixed stud secured to the frame and projecting downwardly therefrom, a pair of 1. upper" and lower anti-friction bearings spaced-apart on and supported by said stud, a gear having a substantial horizontal extent carried by the bearings on the stud, said gear having a hub surrounding the upper bearing with a tubular sleeve extending downwardly from the hub and surrounding the lower bearing and holding the lower bearing spaced from the upper bearing, means for establishing a driving connection between said motor and said gear so as to rotate said gear about the axis of said stud, a removable cap on the lower end of said sleeve with an enlarged flange extending outwardly therefronna plurality of vertical pinstextending between said gear and the flange of said cap at locations spaced substantially from and arranged about the axis of rotation of said. gear and connecting said cap to said gear to prevent accidental removal of said cap, said rotor being provided with a group of vertical holes therethrough corresponding in location to said pins and being of such size as to slidingly engage the surfaces of portions of the pins between said gear and said flange, and a bearing member having a tubular portion of substantial axial extent surrounding,

said sleeve and. being free to move vertically with respect to said sleeve, said rotor further being provided with a centralopening embracing the outer surface of the tubular portion of said bearing member, said gear and the flange on said cap being spaced apart a distance substantially greater than the thickness of said rotor so that, said rotor is free to slide vertically with respect to said pins while being rotated thereby.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 694,077 Raasch et al. Feb. 25, 1902 1,554,622 Chancellor Sept. 22, 1925 2,239,183 Willard Apr. 22, 1941 FOREIGN PATENTS 558,815 France 1923 432,748 Germany 1926 268,221 Great Britain 1927 297,644 Great Britain Sept. 27, 1928 

